The manual way comes first, in Google Ads itself. Then the same problem as Goldbeater finds it, every day, without anyone asking.
Search partners are the sites that show your search ads outside Google.
Google calls them sites in the Search Network that partner with Google to show ads. Your ads can appear on their search results, site directory pages and product detail pages, and on YouTube search results and Watch pages. Google says they extend the reach of search ads to hundreds of non-Google websites, and you pay only when someone clicks, as on Google Search.
Two things make them worth a look in every account. They’re on by default: Google includes search partners when you create a campaign for the Search Network. And Google’s own help page cautions that clicks from these sites may not always reflect highly targeted traffic, and asks you to consider whether including them suits your campaign’s goals.
Google has also been changing the network. Since August 2025 it reports the partner sites your Search and Shopping ads ran on, with impressions for each, and on February 10, 2026 it stopped showing ads on parked domains through search partners. It says advertisers who put at least 5% of their spend on search partners under Smart Bidding can expect more conversions overall. Your own account is where to check that for each campaign.
How to compare them with Google Search
- Go to Campaigns › Campaigns.
- Select the segment icon above the table, then Network (with search partners). Each campaign splits into a row for Google search and a row for Search partners, and a row for the Display Network where Display expansion is on.
- Set the date range to the last 30 days, or longer for a campaign with few conversions.
- Add Conversions and Cost / conv. to the columns, or Conv. value / cost if your account runs on conversion value.
Then compare the two rows of each campaign. The question isn’t whether partners convert as well as Google Search on average across accounts; it’s whether they do in this campaign, with its keywords, its bids and its budget.
| Campaign | Network (with search partners) | Cost | Conversions | Cost / conv. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sofas — Phrase | Google search | $1,590 | 26 | $61 |
| Sofas — Phrase | Search partners | $400 | 1 | $400 |
| Rugs — Broad | Google search | $1,070 | 12 | $89 |
| Rugs — Broad | Search partners | $190 | 2 | $95 |
To see where the partner clicks came from, Google’s placement report lists the partner sites your Search and Shopping ads ran on, with impressions for each: Campaigns › Report editor, then When and where ads showed, then Content Suitability.
Keep them where they pay, and turn them off where they don’t
Where partners convert near Google Search’s rate, keep them. They’re reach you’d otherwise not have, bought at about the price you already pay.
Where they convert far below it, turn them off for that campaign. Be sure the gap is real first: a few conversions either way is often chance, so wait until partners have spent what several conversions cost at the Google Search rate before deciding. Under Smart Bidding, Google sets bids for partner traffic by how likely it is to convert, so a gap that lasts a month despite that is a gap in this campaign’s traffic, not a bidding delay.
- Go to Campaigns › Campaigns.
- Hover over the campaign and select the gear icon.
- Open Networks and untick Include Google search partners. For Display expansion, the setting beside it is Include Google Display Network.
- Select Save.
The setting is per campaign, so a campaign where partners pay keeps them. Performance Max has no such setting: its Search channel includes search partners. What Google does give is an exclusion by site: since March 2024 a placement you exclude for the whole account is also kept off the Search partner network, in Performance Max as in Search and Shopping campaigns. The Display campaign guide has the steps.
What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it
Every day Goldbeater reads each Search campaign that has search partners or Display expansion on, and compares what that network bought over the last 30 days with what its spend would have bought at the campaign’s own Google Search rate. It raises the network where it bought under half, on at least $20, and so few is unlikely to be chance once every campaign tested in the account is allowed for. Where your conversion value is real, the network’s return must be under half too.
It marks the finding by what the network cost above Google Search’s price for the same conversions, high from $200 (more on a larger account), and low where it still converts better than your other campaigns typically do. It drafts the setting’s change for the change set, and nothing reaches your account until a person approves it and presses Apply; an applied change can be undone.
Sofas — Phrase paid $400 a conversion on search partners, against $61 on Google Search
Sofas — Phrase
$339Estimated, a month
At the $61 a conversion Google Search paid, the 1 conversion search partners brought would have cost about $61; they cost $400, about $339 more in the last 30 days.
This campaign's own cost per conversion on Google Search, last 30 days
The campaign spent $400 on search partners, 20% of its spend, for 1 conversion where 6.5 were expected at its Google Search rate: under a 3.7% chance of so few by luck, allowing for the 2 campaign and network pairs tested across the account.
- Cost
- $400
- Share of the campaign's spend
- 20%
- Expected at Google Search's rate
- 6.5
The last 30 days
| Figure | Search partners | Google Search |
|---|---|---|
| Spend | $400 | $1,590 |
| Conversions | 1 | 26 |
| Cost per conversion, beyond chance | $400 | $61 |
Search partners
Google Search
A Search campaign also showing on Google search partners' sites or the Display Network, where that spend brings under half the conversions it buys on Google Search, too far under to be chance, and under half the return where your conversion value is real. Google turns search partners on for every new Search campaign. The estimate is what those conversions cost above the campaign's Google Search price.
Turn off Google search partners in Sofas — Phrase's network settings, so its budget goes to Google Search alone. It's the change below.
- Stop showing ads on Google search partners' sitesCampaignSofas — Phrase
It reaches your account when you approve it in the change set and press Apply. An applied change can be undone.
This is “Search partners or Display expansion converting far below Google Search” on a sample account. See what it finds in your own account and what the fix is worth, and ask your AI analyst about any finding.
Start the 7-day trialThe same check reads Display expansion, and search impression share is where to look if Google Search itself is short of the searches you want. For a Display campaign of its own, the Display campaign guide reads where its ads appeared, site by site and app by app.
Questions
- Are Google search partners worth it?
- In some campaigns and not others. Segment your campaigns by Network (with search partners) and compare cost per conversion or return with Google Search, campaign by campaign.
- Why are search partners on in my campaign?
- Google includes them by default when you create a campaign for the Search Network. You can turn them off in the campaign’s network settings at any time.
- Can I see which partner sites my ads showed on?
- Yes, for Search, Shopping and app campaigns since August 2025: the Content Suitability report lists the sites with impressions for each. Google shows a site that had at least 5 impressions, or any click or conversion, in the dates you choose.
- Does Performance Max show ads on search partners?
- Yes. Its Search channel includes search partners, and it has no network setting to turn them off. A site you exclude at the account level is kept off the Search partner network too, Performance Max included, since March 2024.
- What’s the difference between search partners and Display expansion?
- Search partners show your search ads on partner sites’ search and product pages. Display expansion shows your Search campaign’s ads on the Google Display Network, using budget Search left unspent. Each is its own setting under Networks.